St. Landry democrat., 1887-09-24

Cigars are universally smoked in this
country, and beyond the fact that they
are made of tobacco, little attention is
paid to the kind of tobacco or the inter-
esting processes of their manufacture. 1t
is one of the idosyncrasies, too, of human
nature that every person who smokes
thinks himself Judge of the tobacco he
is smoking. Whether he is or not, this
article will demonstrate, as cigars will
be described from the time the leaf comes
up from the ground till the cigar reaches
the consumer.
Contrary to general belief, domes-
tic cigars are made of tobacco en-
tirely grown north of Mason and
Dixon's line. Cigar tobacco, as it is
called, differs from it's brother Southern
or hogshead tobacco in that it does not
contain as much nicotine and is lighter
and thinner leaf. This is technically
termed seed leaf, or Havana seed leaf if
the seed from which it grows is of Span
ish extraction. Attempts have been made
10 fashion cigars out of Maryland, Vir-
ginia and Kentucky tobacco, but they
were too rank to be smoked with any sat-
isfaction. A kind of cigar is very popu-
lar in certain sections of the country
known as Wheeling stogies or Pittsburg
tobies. These are made from Southern
or hogshead tobacco, soaked until all the
nicotine is washed out of it and then
roughly rolled into long, thin shape Of
cylindrical form to resemble cigar
Wheeling is the headquarters of this in
dustry while Pittsburg furnishes a great
many tobies of the kind described, which
are smoked and enjoyed alike by the
millionaire mill-owner and the humble
factory hand.
Cigar tobacco is grown in the follow
ing States: Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New York,
Indiana and Illinois. Connecticut fur
nished in 1886 10000 cases of what is
commercially known as Connecticut to-
bacco, but some of which was grown in
Massachusetts,, Vermont and New Hamp-
shire; Pennsylvania about 10000 cases !;
New York about Is, 900 cases; Ohio about
$4,000 cases, and Northern Indiana,
Northern Illinois and Wisconsin-known
as Wisconsin tobacco-from %, 900 to 3d.
900 cases. This year, as last, the drouth or
some other cause played the mischief with
the tobacco crops in Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana and Pennsylvania. In 1885 the
Pennsylvania tobacco amounted to rs, 900
cases, while the Wisconsin tobacco crop
in the same year amounted to 10000
cases. The cases contain an average
weight of 1926 pounds of leaf tobacco.
Figuring up the crop of last year, it will
be seen that there were about 100000
cases of 325 pounds each in weight As
case yields on an average $4,000 cigars,
the product of 1885, if worked up into
cigars, would yield 2,4OO,0OO,OOO. The
internal revenue returns for that year
show that $500, 100000 cigars were man
ufactured; hence the discrepancy was
made up of imported tobacco from Cuba
and the Island of Sumatra
Farmers who raise cigar tobacco say it
is the hardest crop of all to make grow,
and the most exhausting of the soil.
From the time the seed is sown till it is
ready to be delivered to the wholesale
leaf-tobacco merchant, unremitting care
and painstaking labor must be the cigar
tobacco cultivator's portion. The seed,
smaller than mustard seed, is first sown
promiscuously in the field or bed. When
1t begins to appear above the ground the
plants are set out about two feet apart; the
field, when the tobacco plants are set out,
looking like patch of cabbage or corn.
Constant watchfulness is then needed to |
keep away worms, whose ravages are
said to destroy in a single night fine
field of tobacco. Suckers, or offshoot
of the plant, must be taken away, the
parent stalk needing all the sustenance
its hill of earth can give it. Constant
hoeing of the earth about the plants
roots is indispensable. Topping COM
mences about the time the plant is going
to seed and the farmer must keep a
watchful eye about this time for atmos-
pheric changes. The plants on no account
must be nipped by frosts. The building
of gigantic fires is frequently necessary,
the smoke of which waiting through the
plants destroys any deleterious effect of
a cool or frosty atmosphere. The tobacco
plant grows quickly, and it is allowed
to stand until it reaches maturity, but if
frost threatens, it is at once cut close to
the ground. The farmer then ties two
stalks together and throws it over poles,
tops downward, in his barn, which he has
had made for the purpose. His watch
fulness must not now relax, for dangers of
and rust threaten the cut
tobacco plant. 1t is left on these poles
until the leaves commence to sweat, when
it is stripped from the stalk, assorted into
wrappers, seconds and filters, tied up in
bands and packed away in cases, where it is
suffered to remain at least year, under
going a sweating or curing process, before
It is ready for market. The tobacco is
divided into three piles of wrappers, Sec
onds or binders and filters, according to
It's length, wrappers, of course, fetching
the highest price.
After years seasoning the tobacco is